Loup Generator - Summer2019

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The weights are applied to a pan fastened to the pendulum rod. They are marked with a numeral displaying the number of seconds per day which that particular weight would change the clock’s rate. Weights are added to the pan to increase the rate and removed from the pan to slow it. A second way of regulating the clock is with two small rheostats located in the top of the case. These control the intensity of a magnetic field set up by a battery coil in the bottom of the case and affect the pendulum swing. One rheostat will set the clock, correcting small errors of up to five seconds. The other rheostat will correct the rate of pendulum movement and acts in the same manner as the weights on the pendulum pan. The pendulum movement is powered by a spring which is kept wound by a connection with the synchronous motor. If the clock should stop, the synchronous motor must be turned off to prevent over-winding of the clock spring. The main and auxiliary synchronous motors are controlled by means of toggle switches in the top of the case. The instruction manual suggests that the movement be cleaned and overhauled and that new synchronous motors be installed every two years. These clocks were to receive very good maintenance to ensure reliable service for the power plants. Henry Warren’s Master Clock Type A and the synchronous clock motor, both relatively simple in concept and design, were ingenious products. Their development made possible, for the first time, the widespread use of the household electric clock that we know today. Article used with permission. This article was originally published in the February 1985 issue of the NAWCC Bulletin (pages 35–37), a journal of the National Association of Watch & Clock Collectors, Inc. For more information about the Association and its membership benefits, please visit nawcc.org. “ In the modern electric clocks . . . the function of measuring time is separate from the function of telling time. Two devices are necessary, first a single very reliable and accurate master clock located at some central point on a power system, and second an unlimited number of synchronous motor clocks located wherever convenient on the distribution system of the power company. The same generators, wires, and transformers which carry light, heat and power to all the company’s customers also carry without any extra charge accurate time impulses to those modern electric clocks. The only thing that is necessary for the electric clock to do is to translate the alternating current impulses into time indications. Therefore, they serve to tell the time which is accurately measured by another device. TOP: The nameplate from Loup Power District’s Warren Telechron Master Clock. BOTTOM: Historical records show that Loup’s clock was initially used at Muscatine Electric Light Company in Muscatine, Iowa. Loup acquired the clock sometime in the late 1930s. Courtesy of Ashland (Mass.) Historical Society. 6 GENERATOR As a result of this arrangement the mechanical construction of the electric clock is of a very different nature from that of the ordinary spring and weightdriven clock. In the latter conservation of power is of the utmost importance. Only a slight amount of energy is available in a tightly wound spring or a lifted weight and this naturally must be used in the most miserly way if the delicate time-measuring escapement device is to perform accurately . . . In the electric clock, however, it is not difficult to provide an abundance of power which can be used for the simple task of keeping the clock hands in motion . . . Synchronous motor clocks may be readily substituted for practically all forms of ordinary clocks and their field of usefulness may be extended far beyond that of spring and weight-driven clocks. The electric movements are small and compact so that they may be mounted in any ordinary form of case. The dial may be readily illuminated by using a trifling amount of the energy which is available inside the case itself. They have already become the most popular form of alarm clock. They may be arranged to show the time of day by moving numerals in place of moving hands. They may be arranged to switch electric current on and off at predetermined times or to give signals according to a regular program. In fact there seems to be no limit to the field of usefulness of these new timekeepers. — HENRY ELLIS WARREN, February 6, 1937 Meeting of the Clock Club in Boston
May 1930 Ladies’ Home Journal ad courtesy of clockhistory.com 7
Page 1 and 2: GENERA OR a publication of Loup Pow
Page 3 and 4: PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE ‘It won’t h
Page 5: A page from the Master Clock instru
Page 9 and 10: The storm destroyed the caretaker
Page 11 and 12: Left: The Pawnee II, a dredge used
Page 13 and 14: SHARON TROFHOLZ Columbus Service Ce
Page 15 and 16: MARIE ZACH Administrative Assistant
Page 17 and 18: AC tune up water heater heat pump $
Page 19 and 20: Area students earn scholarships LIN

Loup Generator - Summer2019

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